Live sports may be the only thing keeping the cable bundle together. But sports media executives acknowledge that without reaching younger viewers where they are, the issues plaguing the industry may become terminal.
The truth is, kids aren’t engaging in live sports. At least not like they used to. With the potpourri of entertainment options aimed towards younger demographics, from streaming to video games to social media, it’s difficult to get young people to watch an entire live sporting event for hours at a time.
In the latest edition of Michael McCarthy’s Tuned In newsletter for Front Office Sports, media executives weighed in on the problem.
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro cited his experience with his own kids as evidence that the struggle is real for legacy sports media brands trying to attract a young audience. “If you look at my kids: Netflix, Instagram, TikTok, Fortnite. They’re incredibly distracted. So can we make programs like Get Up and First Take that resonate with younger people?” Pitaro questioned.
Pitaro’s network in particular has made a series of moves aimed at attracting a younger audience recently. Last year, ESPN made the unprecedented move of licensing The Pat McAfee Show to fill part of its daytime programming lineup. Pitaro says that McAfee’s ability to attract younger viewers is “staggering,” and now the former NFL punter also finds himself a permanent figure on one of ESPN’s flagship shows, College GameDay.
ESPN has also gotten creative in its presentation of live sports. Earlier this week, the network announced it will be producing a Simpsons-themed Monday Night Football telecast aimed at younger viewers. Last year, the network did something similar with a Toy Story-themed broadcast. Also this week, ESPN announced a collaboration with the popular video game Fortnite in which the network’s branding, and even its SportsCenter anchors, are heavily featured.
Doug Pearlman, the longtime sports media executive and founder of Sports Media Advisors, also weighed in on the unique way young people engage with sports as compared to their older counterparts.
“Younger people have shorter attention spans. And we know for a fact they have infinite choices in terms of how to spend their time. So there’s tons of things vying for their time.
“And there are ways they can engage with a sport without spending three hours watching a live event. They can follow it on social platforms. They can get highlights as they happen. They can play fantasy. They can engage with individual athletes and immerse themselves in their fashion taste or musician tastes. They can read trade rumors or draft rumors,” Pearlman told FOS.
The Sports Media Advisors founder opined that while younger people aren’t necessarily watching sports in the same way as previous generations, that doesn’t mean they aren’t equally engaged.
“So you can spend hours a day, which would have been unheard of not that long ago, engaging with a sport but never sit down and watch a three-hour window. That’s not great. On the one hand, it’s great they know more about the sport than anybody ever used to. But it can’t be monetized the same way. So it’s something everybody has to think about.”
Pearlman gets to the heart of the issue facing sports media executives today. How can the industry convert young people—who are happy to play fantasy sports, gamble, listen to sports and sports-adjacent podcasts, and play sports-themed video games—into paying customers, willing to watch live sports on television.
There’s no clear-cut answers. But the future of the industry depends on finding workable solutions. Otherwise sports media, and professional sports at-large, will face a period of austerity that is entirely unfamiliar.